THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - July Edition
Better late than never, right?!
I've been just a little bit busy. ;) I am now a married woman! Our wedding was everything that I dreamed it would be and more. To all of you who came, I am eternally grateful for your love and support in being there. I wish that I would have had more time to spend with all of you!
But more on THAT whole thing in a bit! First let's talk about June chronologically.
The Pride Parade happened, and we had so much fun going to it and getting dressed up in the MOST rainbows! I love the gays!
We also went to Indulgence, which is an amazing food tasting event. I ate one of EVERYTHING (all 20 of them), which was way too much, but absolutely necessary.
I managed to scrounge up Cirque du Soleil tickets at the last minute, and we enjoyed getting to see Amaluna so much! I never miss a Cirque if I can help it.
I got to go to a few performances of Improvaganza, but unfortunately left town before it was finished. I was still glad to see some of it though! It was amazing as always.
Lacey came to town from Calgary, so I was super excited to cram in a dinner with her!!
AND THEN IT WAS WEDDING TIME.
We all left for Jasper on Thursday the 27th and got settled into our home base at Pine Bungalows. The whole Wedding Party was staying there along with our parents and also lots of our other guests, so it was SO AWESOME to literally have our own "cabin village" of all of our people. It made the whole weekend really special. I barely slept all weekend due to nerves and excitement and stress.
On Friday we had a Bridal Party spa day, where I got like EVERY service done in preparation for being a bride. That definitely helped the stress levels. That night was my Bachelorette Party, and I was SO touched that so many of my closest friends were there. I actually cried like three times. Having you guys there from Ontario all the way to British Columbia meant so much to me. It was unbelievable to have so many people who I care about so much all in one place like that. Of course I got up to plenty of shenanigans - what kind of party would it have been if I didn't???
On Saturday we had the rehearsal and the Rehearsal Dinner at our favourite Jasper restaurant called Evil Dave's. We had a huge Wedding Party, but things were pretty organized and I think that we had the fastest rehearsal of all time! Ha ha!
Then Sunday was the wedding!!! I'm still waiting to get the professional photos back, which I am dying to share as soon as I have them. The day went pretty perfectly and it was as if all of my dreams and visions for my wedding came to life.
It's a pretty intense day!! We were up at 5am to be at the salon. And then we were off to the ceremony. I was most worried about the weather being rainy, but it was quite the opposite! It was the MOST hot and sunny day! When it came time for me to walk down the aisle Sarah was ready to give me a pep-talk and all I could say was "let's get this shit done!" Ha ha. I LOVED our wedding ceremony so much. So emotional, yet so incredible to experience.
We left to do photos after the ceremony, and then Tim and I took a horse-drawn carriage to the reception.
The reception was so much fun! The food was really good (that was another worry of mine - wedding food has a reputation of being terrible), Rick Lee was an incredible MC (once everyone was seated for the reception, THIS VIDEO began to play on the screens, and then Rick came running in afterwards), the speeches were really touching, Tim had animated our slideshow video, and the room looked exactly as I had hoped - like a hidden-away forest hideout party at dusk. The DJ played only fun music and the photo booth was a hit. I just loved all of it.
For our wedding night, we stayed at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge in their "Honeymoon Cabin." By time we got to the cabin at 2am we were exhausted... But we had a bottle of Dom Pérignon waiting for us and I certainly did NOT want to end up as one of the supposed 1 in 4 couples who don't have sex on their wedding night. So don't you worry, we took care of ALL of that! ;D
On Monday we had a gift opening brunch and then drove back to Edmonton. Then we left on our honeymoon the next day! I will save honeymoon tales for next month's blog since it happened in July. Something to look forward to!
The pictures that I took over the weekend can be seen HERE!
THIS is a two minute video re-cap of our entire day, set to the song that we danced our first dance to.
So now I'm a married lady and I couldn't be happier about it. I know that I married the right man, that's for sure. It's funny to think that all of those years of dating and ridiculous boys finally lead to him. It's nice to know that he's my partner in crime for life.
I'm so relieved that I no longer have to be working on making a wedding!!! I'M FREE!!!!!!
So July is now half over!
Clearly we spent the first half of it honeymooning in French Polynesia. (Dreams do come true.)
Now it's occurring to us that there's still an entire REST of the summer that we haven't even thought about. There's one of my top 3 Edmonton events of the year, Taste of Edmonton this month - I am surely about to eat ALL of the foods. Fork Fest! will also be going on AKA more eating. And then there's also K-Days, which I don't care as much about but usually end up going to for at least one day. There's also a festival happening called the Interstellar Rodeo which takes place in the park - Alabama Shakes and M. Ward are playing at it and I would like to see them.
Stay tuned for professional wedding photos and honeymoon photos! They're coming soon!
THIS MONTH'S SHOUT OUTS!: July 5th was Candice Weingartner's 31st birthday!
I hope that it was a wonderfully amazing day and that Ryan spoiled you a ton! You've always been such a strong and wonderful friend. I was so happy that you came to the wedding! Right from when we first met, you were the kind of girl who had her eye on the prize (figuratively, in life) and that always inspired me a lot to reach further for the things that I wanted in the world. Love you very much!
July 8th was Crystal Maffenbeier's 31st birthday!
Again, I hope that your day was simply spectacular! And that Jared spoiled you! You've become so focused on bettering the world around you, and I really admire that. You're a wonderful mother as well, with adorable blond children! :D You've always been such a sweetheart to me and I love you so much!
July 15th was Robin Sanders' 31st birthday!
I hope that Julian spoiled you and that your day was wonderful! You're an incredible mother who does everything for her kids and that shows me so much love in you. You've been such a kind and sweet person to me ever since we met. I value our friendship very much and I love you always!
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